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March192014

The "How To" of Investment Advisor Marketing

Financial planning courses - Everyone who's ever been in sales knows you need to market yourself first and sell your product second. The situation for a lot of advisors is how to do just that...market themselves and a viable product. So everybody knows...we're not particularly keen on the phrase "product"... but sometimes there's just no other term to make use of (so bare with me).

Financial planning courses - It's been fun to look at the marketing gurus of the financial services industry show up within the last decade or so. I'm sure they've always been around, but the quantity seems to be growing like gangbusters.

So, while we've done a few videos covering some of this - here's a "written" version of some of the what works and what doesn't in our oh-so-humble opinions:

Seminar Marketing

Love it or loathe it - this process of promoting has been for many the crem de la crem. We talk below about Internet marketing which has been a massive addition for people who relied solely on semniar marketing before. In the flesh seminar marketing is still the flavour du jour in financial adviser marketing, even though this newest form of gathering client assets will likely overtake the seminar market in the years to come. Please realize for anyone attempting to be a fee only advisor it's not simply the quantity of assets and clients - however the quality.

The same is true using the seminar.

There's actually marketing hawkers out that have fooled the bulk of our industry in believing response rates, size, and booking appointments on the spot matter, though believe it or not? ?? ? Insanity!

Listen up: All of that matters from seminar marketing is the way much assets are raised from how couple of clients. Yeah - you need to want a lot of assets and incredibly few clients. This is NOT too difficult.

Remember one fundemental truth that escapes a lot of, the standard of folks the seats is by far more rewarding compared to quantity or trying to top off the space. The ideal client to get a RIA firm is someone that has significant assets and wants an advisor that is different. Being fee based is a start, even though this may be hard to believe. Having something worthwhile to offer prospects is nice too. Once the path of least resistance is learned, it's not all too tough.

Some crucial steps to take when attempting a seminar:

The Location

Be certain the place is known to your target audience, the parking is not hard and it has a genial atmosphere. A little litmus test: If you have only one daughter, money is not an issue, and she is getting married - where do you have the reception? That's an excellent starting point when it arrived at where seminar ought to be.

This List

Break this list up into several income and age segments...for instance 55-60 Incomes over $100,000 and 60-65 incomes of $75,000 or greater. In order to narrow down the search, Specify if possible a wealth finder. You should be able to mail to a minimum of 5,000 households within no more than a 20 minute drive of the location.

Obviously twenty minutes varies by your location. It may be 20 miles in Podunk or 20 blocks in Chicago.

The Invite

Go on and test this over and over again using many differenttypes and fonts, pretty or ugly and what you'll likely find what works the most effective is really a sales letter. A lengthy one.

Many have been successful using the postcard over and above every other method, however a 4 page sales letter generally seems to eliminate some of the...er, plate lickers, in addition to peak the interest of the you really, genuinely wish to come - but aren't the postcard types.

Make use of a large envelope with special type on the exterior including "Usually Do Not BEND" that appears to allude towards the fact something important is inside in fact it is within our opinion. Remember that the only way to qualify people before they get to the seminar is with the list and the mailer. The mailer should have a qualifier mentioned several times within...for instance "in order to attend you must have at least $350,000 in investable assets, excluding your home in order to attend this free seminar to learn...".

The Setup

In most cases the favorite evening seminars that include a free meal please the vast majority of potential clients. Don't moan and piss about serving meals. It's an ancillary cost and the return on your investment continues to support offering food.

Above all - keep in mind that seminars are a lot like competition. You happen to be rivaling other advisors for clients. Some of the advisors are doing seminars. And many which are doing seminars are serving meals. The meal shouldn't be the focal point, but it should at least be up to par with your competition.

Starting the seminar around 4: 30 and concluding having a salad and dinner served around 6: 15; following the seminar continues to be completed has been the venue associated with preference through the years for many. It's important to not allow questions during the seminar as that is what the meeting in your office is made for.

The Presentation

Speakers differ in looks, ability and style for instance. Inside our opinion the presentation ought to be aimed toward an investment Advisory business and really should not be intertwined with selling commission based products of any sort. If you're trying to raise AUM than the seminar setting can be quite a good way to separate yourself from the herd.

Web Based Marketing

It is actually our opinion that this mega producers of the future is going to be growing their organization is an important way online. There is a huge opportunity as at this very moment in time - most advisor sites suck.

A web site ought to be quite simple. It should only attempt to do a few things - its not all things. If you're wanting to make the site an enormous brochure you'll likely be disappointed within the results thinking just because you do have a website that you're now able to get prospective clients.

The site must make the onlooker a proposal that motivates her or him to action. What can the offer be? A good example that may be replicated, albeit in an altered approach, is identical offer made in the seminar. Offer a free personal consultation but alter it by calling it something different and unique.

Simply put, if you're going to build a website make certain that somewhere there is a call to action that prompts the onlooker to want more information from you either in the form of a newsletter that they have to provide their name and email or some other form of continued communication. Below is actually a short listing of website marketing strategies which will assist and hopefully protect you against wasting funds in your effort to build and online presence:

Search Engine Optimisation - SEO

This can be a critical feature necessary to organically grow an internet presence. This feature allows your site to be found and achieve greater rankings on the major search engines such as Google. Someone searches for an investment advisor in your town; you desire to make sure you can be obtained.

Article Promotion

One method to increase traffic to your internet site is to publish articles that will potentially link your website from others sites that is sometimes called linking. You will find online companies that specialize in linking articles to other web sources that will easily highlight your site.

Pay Per Click Marketing Ads

Adwords enables online PayPerClick advertising that allows several test ads that rotate and likewise enables a financial budget. Once that budget is filled the ad no longer shows up for the day thus if someone has a budget of $5.00 per day then. You will find a science concerning how this works and exactly how for the best bang for your buck.